I woke up that morning with something taped to my forehead. I sat up, rubbed my eyes and yanked it off. It was a card with a red pattern on the back, but the front of the card was strange. It looked more like a student ID than anything else, with my name and face on it. Granted, it only had my first name, but I didn't really have a last name.

I looked at everyone else to see if they were still asleep, only to notice they all had these mysterious cards taped to their foreheads as well, each with a different design. Carmen's was the same color as mine, but her pattern was made up of roses whereas mine was made up of triangles. Ilya's card was blue with swirly patterns, and Lily's was yellow with patterns of… well, lilies. It was as if these cards were custom made for each one of us.

The most unsettling part of it all was that the picture used on my card wasn't even a picture I'd taken. I knew for a fact that I hadn't taken a single picture of myself ever since waking up, and Dawn hadn't bothered taking any of me either. I couldn't even tell what was happening in the background of the picture. It was nonsensical. The only thing in the image that looked like it belonged to this reality was my face, as well as my body. The rest of the image was absurd and abstract. Just looking at it gave me a headache.

I was a little bit creeped out, to say the least, so I made my way downstairs, hoping to see Ms. Steinfeld. Sure enough, she was in the living room, or the lobby as it was now known, but it still looked like a regular living room. I asked her about the cards we'd woken up with, to which she showed me her own. Purple with patterns of butterflies. She didn't look like she knew what was going on either, which made my imagination run wild.

"It's probably one of the kids with too much time on their hands," she concluded. "What a pain… impressive though that they went through the effort of bringing all those hourglasses. Annoyingly impressive..."

I hadn't noticed before, but on the other side of the room on one of the kitchen counters, there were twelve hourglasses all lined up. They were a variety of colors and came in different sizes. They were all flipped over and ticking away, as well.

"I'm guessing they correspond with our cards? Anyway, I'm flattered that mine is one of the biggest," she went on with a smug look, before quickly changing her expression back to annoyed, as usual. "Wait a minute… are they calling me overweight?"

She was right. There was one purple hourglass, which was the third largest of the bunch. There were only two larger ones. Two red hourglasses, being the same size. For a prank, it certainly had a lot of effort put into it.

The hourglasses were even custom made like the cards, with all sorts of unique patterns that matched the cards. My ego was being stroked quite a lot, because it looked like the hourglass matching my card was the biggest. Though, the two red hourglasses were tied for first, so there wasn't really a first place.

"It's just that this card has a picture of me, but I don't take pictures," I said to her, not hiding my discomfort.

She stared at her own card for a moment. "It is certainly… creepy," she said not so reassuringly. "Just go back to your room for now while I figure this out and kill whoever did it. Not literally, or I'd lose my job, unfortunately..."

I was unnerved, but feeling safer now that an adult was investigating. I did as she said and returned to my room. Lily was taking up over half of her side of the bed, forcing Ilya up against the wall, who was somehow still sound asleep. Carmen was wide awake though, and she was looking as confused as I was. She didn't initiate a conversation with me or anything, but I felt obligated to explain things to her. I cleared my throat and did my best to sound coherent.

"Ms. Steinfeld said she's looking for who pulled this prank," I informed her.

"Oh, really?" she responded with a kind look. "I was just a bit concerned that someone snuck into our room, but I feel better knowing it's not a killer or anything like that."

I hadn't even realized it before she said it, but it was strange that someone managed to sneak into our room. The rooms were locked, after all. Why wouldn't they be? I took a moment to formulate my thoughts, with my hand holding my chin in my thinking pose.

"Well, what if it was? A killer, I mean, or perhaps not even that," I theorized.

She gave an amused laugh at my proposition, with a hint of nervousness to it. "Seems a bit strange for a murderer to print our pictures and place them on our foreheads, no?"

"Hence why I don't think that's the case," I agreed. "A killer can't print a photo that doesn't exist, and they can't sneak into a room without a key. What if instead, this house was part of a much more sinister conspiracy? Tell me, class rep, do you know the purpose of this field trip?"

"The history of the house, right?" she answered.

"Then tell me, why have we done nothing but swim for all of yesterday?" I continued. "I believe something else is happening behind the scenes, and I want to find out what."

She looked baffled by my performance. Not quite in the way I wanted, but I intended to investigate regardless of what she thought. It was more like I was thinking out loud.

Carmen stared down at her card, a somber expression on her face. "Well then… let me know if you find anything."

I nodded and went to exit the room, but my phone vibrated just as I did, so I picked it up before leaving. Of course, it was my good friend Chloe. As soon as I was in the hallway, I answered.

"Well, if it isn't Iris! My dearest friend who hung up and never called back!" she shouted into her phone.

I pulled the speaker away from my ear a few inches. "Calm down, I was busy. If I was at home I wouldn't have hung up, but I'm on a mission right now."

"Oh, real convenient! So what, are you going to hang up so you can focus on your mission?"

"Actually, I could use your input, if that's okay."

"Oh, gladly. What do you need help with?" She changed her tone entirely.

I walked upstairs as we continued our conversation. I explained the mysterious cards and hourglasses to her as I did. I had her full attention, as she loved a good mystery. I also explained my theory of a larger plot at hand, that wasn't just down to a prank.

"Creepy cards and timers, huh? Sounds like someone wants to play a game," she said.

"But I don't know what the rules of the game are yet," I said.

"All that means is that it hasn't quite started yet, but if I were you, I'd try to solve the mystery before the game starts at all," she suggested.

She was making sense, but I had no idea who could've been at fault. After all, even our teacher wasn't sure what was going on, and I was doubtful that the people who owned the building were behind it because once again, those pictures didn't make sense.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

I thought for a second before talking. "Chloe, do you believe in ghosts?"

"I don't believe in ghosts that use tape. Surely they'd use ghost glue," she joked.

I reached the top floor, where luckily no one was listening in on me. As for why I was on the top floor, it was because I wanted to explore the attic. I figured if something was being kept secret, it would be there. That's the hiding place that I would use. There was a drop down ladder to climb up, but it looked like a recipe for disaster.

"Hey, I'm going to hang up now, but I'll call you later," I said.

"Really? You never call me back, but I'll take your word for it," she then hung up, and I was left to figure out how to use a ladder without killing myself.

I pulled a chair underneath the attic entrance, for I was too short to reach it. I had to hope no one would see me while I did, but I carefully pulled it open. I expected it to land on me immediately, but it surprisingly didn't do that at all, and my head remained uncrushed. I slowly lowered it the rest of the way and unfolded the ladder, ascending into the attic.

It had all sorts of unused furniture, but what caught my attention was the chest towards the back of the room. At first I worried it would be locked and I'd have to search for a key that opened another box with another key that opened the chest, but luckily it opened without any trouble.

Its contents were unexpected. Not only did it have only a couple of items inside of it, but the items themselves were instantly recognizable. In it was a magical wand and a stuffed pink fox. Toys, obviously, but I recognized them from my favorite show, "Valen-Time!"

The toys specifically looked to be merchandise made for the movie, "Valen-Time!: Vixen's Vacation." A spin off in which the main character Valentine and her sidekick Squishy go on a vacation to the afterlife. Honestly, it was pretty dark, but also very good at teaching children about mortality. It was also the last installment in the series, making it even more impactful. Personally, I'd give the film five stars, but that's enough fangirling from me!

Anyway, I didn't look at them for long and closed the chest, because someone was talking below me, and it would've been pretty embarrassing if they saw me. In fact, they were climbing up the ladder just as I'd closed the chest. I prepared myself for strangers, but it was only Ilya and Lily.

Ilya saw me and spoke first. "Ms. Steinfeld wants everyone downstairs, so we were looking for you."

I exhaled a sigh of relief. "Okie dokie."

They came up to look around the attic before leaving, even though they were the ones who told me to join them downstairs. Lily was poking her head in every corner she could, while Ilya stayed at the top of the ladder to scan the room from afar. I wondered whether or not her glasses gave her supervision or something. If that were true, I'd need a pair for myself.

"This is comfy," Lily said. "Why don't we just sleep up here?"

Ilya opened her mouth to say something, but she didn't. I snuck my way past them and started to descend the ladder, but I looked back at them one more time, since something didn't feel right.

Right after Lily spoke, she examined what looked like an ordinary sofa. She was examining it a little too closely though, and Ilya was just watching. I stood on the steps a little longer because I was confused at why they were staring so much. This went on for twenty seconds or so. I walked back up, feeling an instinctive urge to check on them.

I waved a hand in front of Ilya's face. She kept staring at Lily, and so I poked her on the shoulder. She didn't move. I tried pushing her and again, she didn't move. I did the same to Lily and got the same results. They didn't even blink. Their expressions were unchanging, and they were completely frozen in time.

Neither would move no matter how much I shoved. They weren't breathing either, but they also weren't dead. Dead people decomposed, but I had a feeling that they wouldn't decompose no matter how much time passed.

"This… definitely is not good." I started to sweat.

Without wasting another second, I left the attic and ran downstairs. I wasn't sprinting, but I was too terrified to stick around. I ran through the empty halls, eventually making it to the living room and slowing down. Everyone was moving fine. They were looking at the hourglasses, all with their cards in their hands. Ms. Steinfeld saw me once I arrived. My brain was overloaded with different worries, but she didn't take notice.

"Are Ilya and Lily coming?" She let out an exasperated sigh. "Honestly… I ask them to go get you and they don't even come back down."

The answer was no, but I couldn't tell her why. There was absolutely no way they could come downstairs. I wouldn't even be able to carry them. They had no weight, no presence, as if they were unaffected by the entire universe. It was too absurd of a situation.

"I'll… ahh… go get them!" I offered.

I ran back upstairs to the attic, not to get them like I said, but instead to hide them for a while. I couldn't move them at all, but I could at least close the attic. As for why I wanted to hide them, it was panic more than anything else. I had to find a way to recompose myself, and I couldn't do that if everyone else ended up panicking after finding them.

When I got back to the attic, I decided to at least say something before shutting them away. "Hey, I'm not sure if you two can hear me… come to think of it, you probably can't, but I'll be back for you as soon as I figure out what's happening. Unless I don't figure out what's happening, in which case we're screwed…" I looked down, then realizing how stupid I sounded. "I mean- what am I saying, of course I'll figure it out! They don't call me God of Vega for nothing. Well- no one calls me that, but I am! So I will definitely defeat the evil doers hiding in this manor!" I fist pumped the air, giving a satisfied nod.

Whether my words reached them or not, that wasn't really the point. I was mostly talking to myself. Reassurance was what I tried to give to them, but for some reason I felt more in need of it, even though I wasn't the one frozen in time.

I left them up there like they were old sculptures and closed the hatch behind me. I took one deep inhale and an even deeper exhale to expel all of my confusion. After rejoining the group downstairs, I realized that mostly everyone had left to do their own thing. Ms. Steinfeld wasn't there either, which was a relief, since I wouldn't have to explain that I was unsuccessful in retrieving her lost students.

For my first bit of investigation, I decided to take a better look at the hourglasses, as it was the only lead I had. I examined each one until I found two that matched the design on Ilya's and Lily's cards. They were the same size, and strangely enough, the smallest. As well as that, their time had run out. Realizing instantly what this meant, my first reaction was to turn my hourglass over. Alas, I couldn't lift it. Not because the hourglass itself was heavy, but because something was keeping it in place.

My next instinct was to grab a knife from the kitchen. I tried sliding it underneath the hourglass to scrape away anything that was sticking it to the counter, but it didn't work in the slightest. I didn't want to believe it, but there might not have been anything sticking the hourglass to the counter to begin with. It was stuck, but nothing was sticking to it. There was an effect without a cause.

I was worried I'd cut myself on accident, but even more worried that I'd shatter the hourglass, so I returned the kitchen knife to its rack. My head spun and I began to breathe heavier. People were getting frozen in time. How was I supposed to react to something like that? It wasn't something I could do anything about, and I doubted the police would know what to do. So instead, I went back to the attic. It was where all of the old belongings of the house were.

I was relieved to see that no one opened it while I was gone, and Ilya and Lily were still inside. This time, I made sure to shut the hatch behind me, so no one would catch me snooping around. I opened up the chest that had the wand and fox inside of it, but both items were now missing. Instead, there was a card in their place.

The card was pink, but the pattern wasn't a pattern at all. It was the exact house that I was in. It had the same amount of floors as that iconic Victorian architecture. After turning the card over, the image on it was familiar.

A little girl with straight black hair and pink eyes, just like from my dream. The picture was different to mine, since there was an actual background to it. It looked like a normal picture, and it was taken in the front yard of the Roseate Manor. It wasn't taken while we were staying there either, because it was sunny in the picture. The name on the card said Mina Roseate.

There wasn't anything particularly creepy about the photo. She looked like a normal girl in a normal house on a normal day. Even still, it frightened me, because the toys in that chest vanished for no reason and were replaced by this random card for someone I'd only met in a dream. They obviously weren't in my class.

I slipped the card into my pocket, assuming that this Mina person was someone who lived in the house in the past. Perhaps she was haunting me, in which case… I guess my wish for the field trip came true? I wasn't all that excited to realize that.

There was nothing else out of the ordinary in the attic, and all I knew was that once someone's hourglass stopped, so would they. Essentially, I knew the rules of the game but not how to win. Without any other ideas, I went back to my room and gave my partner in crime another call.